The present invention relates to a golf club head improved in a hitting feeling and hitting tone for a planyer.
Recently, in place of a natural wood club whose head are made of natural wood such as a persimmon tree and a cherry tree, there has been developed a so-called "wood" club whose head main body is formed in such a manner that a layer of fiber reinforced resin such as carbon fiber reinforced resin and glass fiber reinforced resin is subjected to compression molding on the surface of a filling member (head core) composed of synthetic resin foam, from the viewpoint of stability in quality and facility in material supplying property. A sole plate formed of aluminum, brass or the like is fixed onto a sole part of the head main body of such "wood" club.
These fiber reinforced resins have high impact resilience, and therefore, are suitable for manufacturing a golf club head having a good ball flying performance.
However, when a player hits a golf ball, these fiber reinforced resins produce different feeling and hitting tone from those of a wooden golf club because of the difference in their characteristics or difference in the structure of the heads, so that a player used to employ a wooden golf club feels uncomfortable. Accordingly, it has been also suggested, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-14863, to provide a golf club head 9 shown in FIG. 3 adapted to obtain dry hitting tone at the time of hitting a ball by interposing a metallic thin film layer 5 in a boundary face between a fiber reinforced resin layer 1 and a filling member 3 so as to reflect the elastic wave of impact generated between a face surface on the fiber reinforced resin layer 1 and the ball upon the hit of the ball from the metallic thin film layer 5 without propagating it to the filling member 3. Further, the elastic wave of the impact is propagated to a shaft 7 side through the fiber reinforced resin layer 1 to easily get an actually hit feeling of the ball by the player.
According to the above-noted arrangement, it is a true that the foaming synthetic resin, the fiber reinforced resin and the metal are increased in the vibration transmission ability in this order, but the above described metallic thin film layer 5 is arranged in an inner part of the golf club head 9 with the fiber reinforced resin layer 1 provided on its peripheral part, and further the metallic thin film layer 5 is in contact with the filling member 3 composed of the foaming synthetic resin liable to damp the vibration.
Therefore, the elastic wave reaching the metallic thin film layer 5 which has the best transmissibility of vibration, is easily damped by the filling member 3 and the elastic wave is not completely transmitted to the shaft 7. Further, the vibration of the metallic thin film layer 5 is damped by the filling member 3, so that dry hitting tone peculiar to metal material can not be obtained upon the hitting of a ball.